Ascribe Higher Education News Service articles from February 2008

Ascribe Higher Education News Service archives from February 2008

Gene Guards Grain-Producing Grasses So People and Animals Can Eat.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Feb. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Purdue University and USDA-Agricultural Research Service scientists have discovered that a type of gene in grain-producing plants halts infection by a...

Conventional Wisdom Proven Wrong: Dow Jones Stock Deletions Outperform Additions Over Time, According to New Pomona College Research.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Pomona College CLAREMONT, Calif., Feb. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- New research published yesterday in the Journal of Wealth Management found that stocks dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1928 have outperformed the...

Irregular Exercise Pattern May Add Pounds.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory BERKELEY, Calif., Feb. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- The consequences of quitting exercise may be greater than previously thought, according to a new study from the U.S. Department of Energy's...

More Than $100 Million Spent on Presidential Ads, Little in Super Tuesday States.
February 1, 2008... Byline: University of Wisconsin - Madison MADISON, Wis., Feb. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Presidential candidates spent $107 million on television advertising so far this season, with nearly all of it spent in the run-up to the earliest...

Association for Computing Machinery's Turing Award Honors Founders of Automatic Verification Technology That Enables Faster, More Reliable Designs; Researchers Created Model Checking Technique for Hardware and Software Designers.
February 4, 2008... Byline: Association for Computing Machinery NEW YORK, Feb. 4 (AScribe Newswire) -- ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, has named Edmund M. Clarke, E. Allen Emerson, and Joseph Sifakis the winners of the 2007 A.M. Turing Award,...

Laser Technology Meets 'Vanishing Treasures'; National Park Service Supports High Tech Archaeology.
February 4, 2008... Byline: Kacyra Family Foundation ORINDA, Calif., Feb. 4 (AScribe Newswire) -- The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT), part of the U. S. National Park Service, raised the bar for documenting archaeology through...

Breast-Feeding Now Safer for Infants of HIV-Infected Mothers; First Solid Evidence That Viral Transmission Through Breast Milk Can Be Prevented by a Drug.
February 4, 2008... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BOSTON, Feb. 4 (AScribe Newswire) -- An antiretroviral drug already in widespread use in the developing world to prevent the transmission of HIV from infected mothers to their newborns during...

RNA-Associated Introns Guide Nerve-Cell Channel Production, Penn Researchers Find; Implications for Studying Learning, Memory, Neurological Diseases.
February 5, 2008... Byline: University of Pennsylvania Health System PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that introns, or junk DNA to some, associated with RNA are an...

Carnegie Mellon Visiting Scholar Helps International Research Team Identify Areas Most Vulnerable to Abrupt Global Climate Change.
February 5, 2008... Byline: Carnegie Mellon University PITTSBURGH, Feb. 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- A new international study released today warns that ecosystems and societies are at risk from the ongoing warming of our planet. The study, to be published in...

Transparent Fish to Make Human Biology Clearer; Researchers Can Watch Cancer Spread and Bone Marrow Engraft.
February 6, 2008... Byline: Children's Hospital Boston BOSTON, Feb. 6 (AScribe Newswire) -- Zebrafish are genetically similar to humans and are good models for human biology and disease. Now, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have created a zebrafish...

Racing Ahead at the Speed of Light: Accelerator Physicists Correct Beam Scattering, Increase Collision Rates of Speeding Particles.
February 6, 2008... Byline: Brookhaven National Laboratory UPTON, N.Y., Feb. 6 (AScribe Newswire) -- Imagine trying to catch up to something moving close to the speed of light - the fastest anything can move - and sending ahead information in time to make...

Gene Plays 'Jekyll and Hyde' in Brain Cancer.
February 6, 2008... Byline: Harvard University Medical School BOSTON, Mass., Feb. 6 (AScribe Newswire) -- Perhaps the only positive spin one can put on the brain cancer glioblastoma is that it's relatively uncommon. Other than that, the news is bad. It is...

Johns Hopkins Researcher Leads International Effort to Create 'Proteinpedia'; Online Human Protein Encyclopedia Will Speed Research.
February 7, 2008... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, Feb. 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- A researcher at the Johns Hopkins Institute of Genetic Medicine has led the effort to compile to date the largest free resource of experimental information...

Entrepreneurial Strategy That Propelled Companies Like Starbucks Ignored by Business Scholars, Researchers Say.
February 7, 2008... Byline: Ohio State University COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- Business researchers need to focus more on entrepreneurs who "create" new businesses rather than those who "discover" them, according to two management professors...

Mummy Lice Found in Peru May Give New Clues About Human Migration.
February 7, 2008... Byline: University of Florida GAINESVILLE, Fla., Feb. 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- Lice from 1,000-year-old mummies in Peru may unravel important clues about a different sort of passage: the migration patterns of America's earliest humans, a...

Palo Alto Medical Foundation is First in the World to Have 'Breakthrough' Device for Radiosurgery; Ultra-Fine Beam-Shaping Device Enables 'Unsurpassed' Treatment Accuracy.
February 7, 2008... Byline: Palo Alto Medical Foundation PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Palo Alto Medical Foundation recently became the first health care organization in the world with a new high-definition multileaf collimator (HD 120...

Slow-Motion Video Study Shows Shrews Are Highly Sophisticated Predators.
February 7, 2008... Byline: Vanderbilt University NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- Shrews are tiny mammals that have been widely characterized as simple and primitive. This traditional view is challenged by a new study of the hunting methods of...

State of Tobacco Control Report Card to Focus on Smoke Free Air in Los Angeles and Orange Counties; Find Out Who's Passing and Failing on Tobacco Control.
February 8, 2008... Byline: American Lung Association ENCINO, Calif., Feb. 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- The American Lung Association of California today released the following media advisory. - - - - WHAT: The American Lung Association of California will...

Benefit of Cancer Prevention Surgery Differs Between Women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 Mutations.
February 11, 2008... Byline: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center NEW YORK, Feb. 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- The surgical removal of the ovaries has been widely adopted as a cancer-risk-reducing strategy for women with either BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. A new...

Human Deaths from Shark Attacks Hit 20-Year Low Last Year.
February 12, 2008... Byline: University of Florida GAINESVILLE, Fla., Feb. 12 (AScribe Newswire) -- Fatal shark attacks worldwide dipped to their lowest levels in two decades in 2007 with the sole casualty involving a swimmer vacationing in the South Pacific,...

'Lab on a Chip' Mimics Brain Chemistry; Will Speed Studies of Brain Cells.
February 12, 2008... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, Feb. 12 (AScribe Newswire) -- Johns Hopkins researchers from the Whiting School of Engineering and the School of Medicine have devised a micro-scale tool - a lab on a chip - designed to...

Anxiety Linked to Newly Diagnosed DCIS Patients' Overestimation of Breast Cancer Risks.
February 12, 2008... Byline: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute BOSTON, Feb. 12 (AScribe Newswire) -- Elevated levels of anxiety may cause women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), the most common form of non-invasive breast cancer, to overestimate their risk of...

Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) Neutralization Can Damage Brain Vessels, Say Schepens Eye Research Institute Scientists; Could Have Impact on Cancer Treatment and Other Systemic Uses of Drugs to Target VEGF.
February 13, 2008... Byline: Schepens Eye Research Institute BOSTON, Feb. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- New research by scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute may help explain why the anti-cancer drug Avastin, which targets a growth factor responsible for...

Scripps Research Scientists Find Protein May Protect Against Alzheimer's Disease; What Can Destroy a Heart Might Safeguard the Brain.
February 13, 2008... Byline: The Scripps Research Institute LA JOLLA, Calif., Feb. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute report that a protein capable of producing what has been called "Alzheimer's of the heart" has been found...

Combined Viruses Cause More Deadly Disease in Pigs, Researchers Discover.
February 13, 2008... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Feb. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- A pig virus that exists worldwide has become more dangerous as the virus has mutated and then combined with other pathogens, according to Purdue University...

Bacterial Toxin Closes Gate on Immune Response, Penn Researchers Discover Implications for Finding New Ways to Fight MRSA.
February 13, 2008... Byline: University of Pennsylvania Health System PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have demonstrated that a bacterial toxin from the common bacterium Staphylococcus...

Scientists Solve Structure of Gene Regulator That Plays Key Role in Cancer.
February 13, 2008... Byline: The Wistar Institute PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists at The Wistar Institute have collaborated on a major advance in understanding a gene regulator that contributes to some of the deadliest cancers in humans....

Chromosome Hit-and-Run; 3-D Analysis of Enzyme Reveals How It Alters Gene Function.
February 13, 2008... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, Feb. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- By solving the 3-D structure of one particular enzyme that controls genes, researchers at Johns Hopkins, working with colleagues at University of...

Titan's Surface Organics Surpass Oil Reserves on Earth.
February 13, 2008... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Feb. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Saturn's orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new data...

PSA Testing Can Predict Advanced Prostate Cancer.
February 14, 2008... Byline: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center NEW YORK, Feb. 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- A single prostate specific antigen (PSA) test taken before the age of 50 can be used to predict advanced prostate cancer in men up to 25 years in advance...

Brain Waves Pattern Themselves After Rhythms of Nature.
February 15, 2008... Byline: University of Chicago CHICAGO, Feb. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- The same rules of physics that govern molecules as they condense from gas to liquid, or freeze from liquid to solid, also apply to the activity patterns of neurons in the...

Cocaine's Effects on Brain Metabolism May Contribute to Abuse; Study in Mice Shows Drug's Effects Extend Beyond Dopamine, Brain's 'reward' Chemical.
February 18, 2008... Byline: Brookhaven National Laboratory UPTON, N.Y., Feb. 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- Many studies on cocaine addiction - and attempts to block its addictiveness - have focused on dopamine transporters, proteins that reabsorb the brain's...

Math Model Identifies Key to Controlling Epidemic of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Hospitals.
February 18, 2008... Byline: Vanderbilt University NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- When you check into a hospital, the odds are one in ten that you will become infected with a strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria as a result of your stay....

Child Obesity Seen as Fueled by Spanish Language TV Ads.
February 18, 2008... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, Feb. 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- Spanish-language television is bombarding children with so many fast-food commercials that it may be fueling the rising obesity epidemic among Latino youth,...

China's Collectivist Work Ethic Changing, Suggests Study From University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.
February 19, 2008... Byline: Rotman School of Management TORONTO, Feb. 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- China's economic juggernaut may be forcing a change in attitudes around what makes a good worker, says a study by two researchers at the University of Toronto's...

University of Central Florida Technique Promises to Aid Doctors' Ability to Identify, Treat Bacterial Infections.(Disease/Disorder overview)
February 19, 2008... Byline: University of Central Florida ORLANDO, Feb. 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- A new technique developed by a University of Central Florida chemist will help physicians more quickly identify the bacterial infections patients have so they can...

Advertisers, Neuroscientists Trace Source of Emotions in Brain.
February 19, 2008... Byline: University of Florida GAINESVILLE, Fla., Feb. 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- First came direct marketing, then focus groups. Now, advertisers, with the help of neuroscientists, are closing in on the holy grail: mind reading. At...

New Aluminum-Rich Alloy Produces Hydrogen On-Demand for Large-Scale Uses.
February 19, 2008... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Feb. 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- Purdue University engineers have developed a new aluminum-rich alloy that produces hydrogen by splitting water and is economically competitive with conventional...

A Fresh Look Inside Mount St. Helens: Michigan Tech Researcher Identifies New Cause of Earthquakes.
February 19, 2008... Byline: Michigan Technological University HOUGHTON, Mich., Feb. 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- Volcanoes are notoriously hard to study. All the action takes place deep inside, at enormous temperatures. So geophysicists make models, using what...

Costs of Solar Photovoltaic Panels Substantially Eclipse Benefits, Says Study by University of California Energy Institute Director.
February 20, 2008... Byline: Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley BERKELEY, Calif., Feb. 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- Despite increasing popular support for solar photovoltaic panels in the United States, their costs far outweigh the benefits, according to a new...

Teens, Romance, and ... Contraception? New Research: The Quality of Teen Relationships Influences Decisions About Contraception.
February 20, 2008... Byline: Child Trends, Inc. WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (AScribe Newswire) -- New research from Child Trends indicates that teens in strong, positive romantic relationships are more likely to use contraception. The study finds: - Teens who...

Another Way to Grow Blood Vessels: Scientists Find Alternate Pathway to Angiogenesis.
February 21, 2008... Byline: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute BOSTON, Feb. 21 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have found a previously unknown molecular pathway in mice that spurs the growth of new blood vessels when body parts are...

Scripps Research Study Uncovers New Mechanism of Long-Term Memory Formation; Neuron Spines Recruit Receptors That May Aid in Learning.
February 21, 2008... Byline: The Scripps Research Institute LA JOLLA, Calif., Feb. 21 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have identified specific features of neurons that are critical components of the learning process and the...

New Chemical Toolkit Manipulates Mitochondria, Reveals Insights Into Drug Toxicity.
February 24, 2008... Byline: Harvard University Medical School BOSTON, Mass., Feb. 24 (AScribe Newswire) -- Why do nearly 1 million people taking cholesterol-lowering statins often experience muscle cramps? Why is it that in the rare case when a diabetic takes...

Autism's Origins: Mother's Antibody Production May Affect Fetal Brain.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, Feb. 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- The mothers of some autistic children may have made antibodies against their fetuses' brain tissue during pregnancy that crossed the placenta and caused...

First Global Malaria Map in Decades Shows Reduced Risk.
February 26, 2008... Byline: University of Florida GAINESVILLE, Fla., Feb. 26 (AScribe Newswire) -- About 35 percent of the world's population is at risk of contracting deadly malaria, but many people are at a lower risk than previously thought, raising hope...

Penn Researchers Engineer First System of Human Nerve-Cell Tissue; Implications for Nerve Repair and Implantation.
February 26, 2008... Byline: University of Pennsylvania Health System PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 26 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have demonstrated that living human nerve cells can be engineered into a network...

Mood Markers Isolated in Blood Open Informative Window Into Brain Functioning and Disease; May Alter Approach to Psychiatric Treatment.
February 26, 2008... Byline: Indiana University School of Medicine INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 26 (AScribe Newswire) -- Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have isolated biomarkers in the blood that identify mood disorders, a breakthrough that may change...

This Is Your Brain on Jazz: Researchers Use MRI to Study Spontaneity, Creativity; Johns Hopkins Researcher Also Trained as a Jazz Musician.
February 26, 2008... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, Feb. 26 (AScribe Newswire) -- A pair of Johns Hopkins and government scientists have discovered that when jazz musicians improvise, their brains turn off areas linked to self-censoring...

Scripps Research Institute Scientists Studying Sepsis in Mice Find Potential Drug Targets for Deadly Disease.
February 27, 2008... Byline: The Scripps Research Institute LA JOLLA, Calif., Feb. 27 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have uncovered a connection between blood coagulation and the immune system that may have important...

Why Juniper Trees Can Live on Less Water.
February 27, 2008... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., Feb. 27 (AScribe Newswire) -- An ability to avoid the plant equivalent of vapor lock and a favorable evolutionary history may explain the unusual drought resistance of junipers, some varieties of which...

New Research Suggests Biofuel Blending Is Often Inaccurate; Study of Retail Biofuel Samples Suggests National Standards May Be Needed.
February 27, 2008... Byline: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution WOODS HOLE, Mass., Feb. 27 (AScribe Newswire) -- While sampling blended biodiesel fuels purchased from small-scale retailers, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found that...

Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Academy Develops Programming Language for Robots; ROBOTC Language Supports LEGO Mindstorms and Other Educational Robots.
February 28, 2008... Byline: Carnegie Mellon University PITTSBURGH, Feb. 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- Educators at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Academy have developed ROBOTC, a programming environment optimized for use with educational robots at the high...

Technology Uses Live Cells to Detect Food-Borne Pathogens, Toxins.
February 29, 2008... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Feb. 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers have developed a new technology that can simultaneously screen thousands of samples of food or water for several dangerous food-borne pathogens in...

When Couples Face the Diagnosis of Cancer, Women Carry a Larger Emotional Burden Than Men; Penn Researchers Conclude Gender, Not the Patient, Plays Dominant Emotional Role in Couples Coping With Cancer.
February 29, 2008... Byline: University of Pennsylvania Health System PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- In a couple where one of the partners is diagnosed with cancer, women are more consistently and severely distressed than men, regardless of whether...

Novel Mechanism Found That May Boost Impaired Function of Leukemia Protein.
February 29, 2008... Byline: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center NEW YORK, Feb. 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- A new study led by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) reports on a novel mechanism that can enhance the function of a protein...